The Normal Way
by Aelinn
Summary: Just a short oneshot of Steph and Ranger after EOT.


The Normal Way

'Ella?' Stephanie asked sweetly around the rage that threatened to block her throat. After all, it wasn't Ella she was furious with.

'Stephanie? Is that you? Oh, it is good to hear from you. How are you?' Stephanie smiled in spite of the rage. She'd always liked Ella.

'I'm good thanks, how are you?'

'I'm fine too. Can I help you with something?'

'Yes, I believe so. Can you tell me where Ranger is?' Finally.

'He should be in Conference room A on the third floor, dear.'

'Thank you.' Steph hung up, glad to have found out what she wanted relatively painlessly. It was two years after the mess with Stiva, and she was still working for Ranger. She liked the job, despite her mother's wishes for her to get another. She'd moved into a newer, safer, more expensive apartment with all the pay she was getting from Ranger. She'd also embarked on something more than a working, but less than a romantic, relationship with him some time ago. It hadn't seemed to be going anywhere. Until she'd found the box.

Still furious with the man in black, she dragged a jacket on, grabbed the keys to her new, shiny dark blue BMW convertible also paid for – indirectly – by Ranger, snatched the box up, and shot off in the direction of the Haywood offices.

Ten minutes later her car was safely parked in the garage, she'd avoided all the officers who might have wanted to give her speeding tickets, and she was in the elevator, chaffing at the time it took to move.

As soon as the door opened, she stormed down the corridor to the room that held the man who was the focus of all her anger. She was so angry and focused she didn't notice the number of other people in the room.

'What the hell is this?' she demanded, slamming the innocent little box down in front of him.

'A box,' Ranger stated as if the answer should be obvious. Steph spluttered. 'Babe?'

'It's not just _a box_!' she nearly screamed. Every man in the room, and there were about twenty of them, winced. Ranger raised one eyebrow. 'You're amazing,' Stephanie said, so calmly that every man but four relaxed. Ranger and his A team knew the calm was only affected and that the screaming rage would soon reappear. 'You're fantastic, wonderful and caring. But you don't know _how the hell to propose!_'

At the explosion, the men winced again. Except the three who were laughing, and the one who'd gone deadly serious. Ranger's A team were shaking with silent laughter. Tank was nearly on the floor. Bobby had his hands stuffed in his mouth, trying to stifle the sound. Lester's head was on the table, making the whole thing shake with his amusement.

Ranger was staring at Steph, bewildered and not a little frightened.

'If you're going to propose to a woman,' Steph began, the calm back full force, 'you don't leave a little box on the table in her apartment, with no note. You take her out to dinner, give her flowers, _date_ her, talk about love and marriage, kids, all the other important stuff, and _then_ you ask her! You don't ask her when you've slept with her once and _that_ was because of a stupid deal that wasn't even really valid! You don't ask her when you've never been on a single date! You don't ask her when she works with you and doesn't know half of what the hell you do! You don't ask her when she doesn't know where the hell you live! You don't ask her when she's never met a single person in you family! Have you got all that?' Most of it had been yelled at him and he'd've had to be deaf not to get it.

Tank, Lester and Bobby were still laughing. Tank had achieved the floor, where he was curled up, shaking visibly and clutching his stomach. Bobby looked as if he would soon follow, his face turning a very interesting shade of black red-purple from his efforts not to laugh. Lester slid to the floor even as Steph's last words faded, leaning back against his chair, which unfortunately had wheels and slid amazingly fast out from behind him, causing him to fall to the floor, his head making an audible thump. Ranger looked displeased and like he was thinking furiously.

'You want to go to dinner with me tonight, Babe? What's your favourite flower? I love you. I want to marry you. I want to see you have my babies. Anything else doesn't matter. The deal was stupid, yeah. But you didn't say no. Stay in this meeting and you'll find out what I do. 65734 Brookwood Street, Trenton. Tank's as good as my blood brother. Good enough?'

Stephanie stared at him, speechless. It was this that caused the three goons to lose their battle and let out huge whoops of mirth.

'Gotta hand it to ya, Ric, the deal _was_ stupid,' Tank wheezed out between laughs. 'Knew she'd get hung up on that.' Steph whirled around, only then noticing the rest of the men in the room. She blushed and rounded back on Ranger.

'Need to be-'

'More aware of my surroundings, I _know_ that!' She dismissed it impatiently with a flap of her hand. 'But it's safe in here and I was far too angry with you to pay attention. Who the hell are they?' Her voice got slowly quieter until the question was nearly whispered and almost – _almost_ – fearful. She was still furious, but it was rapidly transforming into embarrassment as she realised how many people had just heard her rant. On the other hand, she'd got a lot of information out of Ranger. On the _other_ hand, it'd just given rise to even _more_ questions.

'Mostly cousins, varying degrees of relevance, but my father and brothers are here, too,' Ranger told her.

'Nice to meet you, Ms Plum,' a voice behind Steph said. She turned and looked at the man who'd spoken. He was in his early sixties and was quite obviously Ranger's father.

'Uh… nice to meet you too,' she mumbled. 'Call me Steph.'

'You really messed this one up, Ricky,' someone else said. Ranger glared at the man.

'Shut up, Dom. Babe,' his voice suddenly turned a lot more unsure, 'you still haven't answered me.' Tank, Lester and Bobby managed to stop laughing, and, wiping tears from their eyes, watched in silence as Steph considered.

'Hell yeah, I'll marry you. Since when have you done anything the normal way?' Ranger sat in stunned silence for a moment, then leapt out of his chair and reached for Steph. She held a hand out, halting him. 'Although, your explanation needs some work. I want detail. A _lot_ of it. And I want you to answer all my questions, unless it's I'll-tell-you-but-then-I'll-have-to-kill-you shit.'

'Damn,' someone muttered softly.

'Anything, Babe,' Ranger whispered, grabbing her and kissing her for all he was worth as the room broke out in cheers.


End file.
